[Brooko]

Seeing how James brought the idea up, and he is no longer with Fiio, I have a little doubt about them dropping this

 
When did James leave?  He's still the CEO isn't he?

 

[x RELIC x]

When did James leave?  He's still the CEO isn't he?

It's just one member not paying attention. As you know, Joe is the one who is no longer with FiiO.

 

[ShreyasMax]

Seeing how James brought the idea up, and he is no longer with Fiio, I have a little doubt about them dropping this

That I'm assuming is a big blow to the company, . But hope FiiO somehow release this device and also hope there's really a good enough market for it to be successful.

Edit> Just read the post above. I still hope for this device to be successfully launched in the not too distant future.

 

[x RELIC x]

Whoa, James is no longer with FiiO? That's a big blow to the company, its users, and not to mention, this transport 'T1'. But hope FiiO somehow release this device and also hope there's really a good enough market for it to be successful.

No. It's an unfounded comment.

 

[Whitigir]

No. It's an unfounded comment.

It is Joe not James

http://www.head-fi.org/t/802352/joe-bloggs-will-be-leaving-fiio my bad

 

[x RELIC x]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/802352/joe-bloggs-will-be-leaving-fiio

Dude. Pay attention. I gave you that link. That is Joe Bloggs not JamesFiiO.

Please get it straight.

 

[Topspin70]

I'm in the market for a transport for computer audio and have been considering the likes of Aurender N100H Auralic Aries Melco N1 etc. So this thread got me excited until I read it's gonna have a DAC/amp cuz otherwise the market would be too narrow. I should be disappointed but honestly I'm more puzzled. The models I mentioned are selling near $2k price range so they should be harder to sell and if so why are manufacturers jumping in with new models? I believe it's because they know they are in the hifi business and they know hifi audience appreciate transports, and transports will sell. In fact I doubt the question ever arose whether transports will sell, esp with so many standalone DACs in the market these days compared to say 10 years ago. Now this obviously wouldn't apply if FiiO aren't targeting hifi audiences but mass market instead, and if indeed so, why even start a thread asking if the market need a new transport? Mass market audience wouldn't even know what it is, much less appreciate and buy it.

Sorry if others have already pointed this out many times, but I'm truly fascinated by why a hifi company struggled to accept common sense feedback from the hifi community for a hifi product in a potentially lucrative segment (nobody making any low price portable transport--yet).

 

[JamesFiiO]

I'm in the market for a transport for computer audio and have been considering the likes of Aurender N100H Auralic Aries Melco N1 etc. So this thread got me excited until I read it's gonna have a DAC/amp cuz otherwise the market would be too narrow. I should be disappointed but honestly I'm more puzzled. The models I mentioned are selling near $2k price range so they should be harder to sell and if so why are manufacturers jumping in with new models? I believe it's because they know they are in the hifi business and they know hifi audience appreciate transports, and transports will sell. In fact I doubt the question ever arose whether transports will sell, esp with so many standalone DACs in the market these days compared to say 10 years ago. Now this obviously wouldn't apply if FiiO aren't targeting hifi audiences but mass market instead, and if indeed so, why even start a thread asking if the market need a new transport? Mass market audience wouldn't even know what it is, much less appreciate and buy it.

Sorry if others have already pointed this out many times, but I'm truly fascinated by why a hifi company struggled to accept common sense feedback from the hifi community for a hifi product in a potentially lucrative segment (nobody making any low price portable transport--yet).

 
 
I can understand you and lots of people who belive the transport must without dac/amp , maybe it is some kind of " faith " . I hope you can read through the thread and them tell me what is the most important thing for a transport, if it just means a DAP without DAC/AMP, that will be more easy to us . 

 

[JamesFiiO]

Seeing how James brought the idea up, and he is no longer with Fiio, I have a little doubt about them dropping this

Edited: corrected, it is Joe that be leaving Fiio and not James

 
 
I am  not CEO but I will be with you guys for ever , of course, with FiiO too. 

 

[jeffhawke]

I'm in the market for a transport for computer audio and have been considering the likes of Aurender N100H Auralic Aries Melco N1 etc. So this thread got me excited until I read it's gonna have a DAC/amp cuz otherwise the market would be too narrow. I should be disappointed but honestly I'm more puzzled. The models I mentioned are selling near $2k price range so they should be harder to sell and if so why are manufacturers jumping in with new models? I believe it's because they know they are in the hifi business and they know hifi audience appreciate transports, and transports will sell. In fact I doubt the question ever arose whether transports will sell, esp with so many standalone DACs in the market these days compared to say 10 years ago. Now this obviously wouldn't apply if FiiO aren't targeting hifi audiences but mass market instead, and if indeed so, why even start a thread asking if the market need a new transport? Mass market audience wouldn't even know what it is, much less appreciate and buy it.

Sorry if others have already pointed this out many times, but I'm truly fascinated by why a hifi company struggled to accept common sense feedback from the hifi community for a hifi product in a potentially lucrative segment (nobody making any low price portable transport--yet).

Thank you! This is exactly how I feel also. A pure transport shoul be exactly that, no DAC or amp, just the best possible combination of size, memory, user friendliness and quality connections. At least that's what I would be really interested in. If it is possible to design it in such a way that whoever wants can add a DAC/amp module to it fine, as long as it doesn't compromise the overall design.

 

[Torq]

   
 
I can understand you and lots of people who belive the transport must without dac/amp , maybe it is some kind of " faith " . I hope you can read through the thread and them tell me what is the most important thing for a transport, if it just means a DAP without DAC/AMP, that will be more easy to us . 

I think the general definition of a transport is, essentially, a "player" (e.g. a DAP) that has nothing but a digital output and lacks both DAC and AMP.
 
Other than possibly increasing cost, and maybe size, a little (and it doesn't sound like the path you're on here impacts either very much), having a DAC and AMP on board isn't really much of a negative.  It wouldn't stop me buying something as a portable transport ... provided that transport has as much storage capacity as is reasonably possible and has the internal horsepower to properly index, present and serve up the files as smoothly as possible.
 
If, for example, the X7 had had two microSD slots I'd have bought it to replace my AK120.  If it had two full-size SD slots, or I could have chosen to remove the AMP section and have that hold additional storage, I'd have bought one too.

 

[Topspin70]

I'm in the market for a transport for computer audio and have been considering the likes of Aurender N100H Auralic Aries Melco N1 etc. So this thread got me excited until I read it's gonna have a DAC/amp cuz otherwise the market would be too narrow. I should be disappointed but honestly I'm more puzzled. The models I mentioned are selling near $2k price range so they should be harder to sell and if so why are manufacturers jumping in with new models? I believe it's because they know they are in the hifi business and they know hifi audience appreciate transports, and transports will sell. In fact I doubt the question ever arose whether transports will sell, esp with so many standalone DACs in the market these days compared to say 10 years ago. Now this obviously wouldn't apply if FiiO aren't targeting hifi audiences but mass market instead, and if indeed so, why even start a thread asking if the market need a new transport? Mass market audience wouldn't even know what it is, much less appreciate and buy it.

Sorry if others have already pointed this out many times, but I'm truly fascinated by why a hifi company struggled to accept common sense feedback from the hifi community for a hifi product in a potentially lucrative segment (nobody making any low price portable transport--yet).

 
 
I can understand you and lots of people who belive the transport must without dac/amp , maybe it is some kind of " faith " . I hope you can read through the thread and them tell me what is the most important thing for a transport, if it just means a DAP without DAC/AMP, that will be more easy to us . 

It's not about faith, or ease of production. It actually surprises me that you see it from these angles. It's the basic idea of specialisation. It's actually harder to be very good at doing one thing. Look at Wadia transports back when CDs were in. They are engineering marvels. They differentiate audiophile products from generic hifi products. And people aspire to own such things. Because they deliver sonic quality only a dedicated component can achieve.

Many others have shared their views with you about size battery connectivity etc. You don't need any additional thoughts from me. I'm just voicing the fundamental concept of a transport which is a specialised audio component dedicated to doing one thing: take wonderful music info to the DAC in the best way possible. It's the reason why I would buy a transport, and I'm sure why many others would too.

 

[f4phantom2500]

I think james is seeing it more through the perspective of "we can make a great pure transport that meets peoples design criteria and provides bit perfect digital audio feed at a reasonable cost, or for negligible more design and cost concerns we can provide the exact same thing with the addition of a reasonable integrated dac/amp and a headphone jack, thus appealing to more people". Of course this could usercut sales of models like the x3, even if the x3 sounds better: the transport will still sound "good enough" for the average consumer (isnt that the whole point of addig a dac/amp anyway, since anyone discerning would use an external device anyway?), but offer much more storage space.

But i feel like you, as others have seemed to, are assuming that the dac/amp will drive cost up and/or compromise sound quality. James has tried to assure people throughout this thread that that would not be the case, that the dac/amp is completely cost effective and does not compromise other design parameters, such as device thickness or sound quality. It will simply make the device more versatile.

Besides, james has already suggested that the decision for a particular SoC has been made, and that chip includes a dac/amp module built in. Whenever someone brings it back up, its basically rehashing a decision thats already been made, that doednt have any real disadvantages, and that ultimately results in nothing beyond rhetoric

 

[Sp12er3]

Agree, it's better for people to move on if one thing really doesn't suit their expectations, and look elsewhere... If this Transport is released and received a good enough sales to demand It's own series Lineup and possible future iteration then, they can talk again after 1 time experience...

 

[Topspin70]

I hear you guys. I was sharing my sense of puzzlement more than anything. Wasn't planning to change anything. But if you look up just a few posts, you will see that James responded asking to hear more about my thoughts, so I shared with him. It must have pained you to hear familiar material again so my apologies. You might also notice that he gave the impression that decision isn't final on adding dac/amp to the transport. Perhaps you folks know something more than what he lets on?